


Shifting Moments Between Us

by ladyhawk



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: AvaLance, F/F, First Kiss, First Time, PWP, Slow Romance, Zarlie - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-09-27 14:42:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17163881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyhawk/pseuds/ladyhawk
Summary: “Before you know what’s happening, she grabs your face and kisses you full on the lips. You don’t have time to react at all before she’s pulled away, which is probably good because your initial reaction would probably be to airblast her across the room if you had time to think about it.” Told from the perspective of Zari, who can’t decide if she wants to kiss or kill Charlie at any given moment.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y’all. Hope you like this one. Would love some comments if you do. I’ve got several chapters planned out. A million thanks to Aryn who beta-read for me and helped me tidy this one up a lot. I’m @JayneZee_ on Twitter if you want to hit me up

This is how it starts.

You’re alone in the lab trying to get some work done when suddenly a strange red haired woman bounds in breathlessly. You shoot up to meet the intruder, hands rising to summon your air powers. She simply grins at you though and twirls around. 

“What do you think, Z?”

“Charlie?” you say, surprised. You walk over to her suspiciously.

There’s a shimmer around her, and then you find yourself looking at Charlie in Amaya’s form, her eyes gleaming with excitement. She glances down at the watch on her wrist.

“Yes!” She pumps her fist.

Before you know what’s happening, she grabs your face and kisses you full on the lips. You don’t have time to react at all before she’s pulled away, which is probably good because your initial reaction would probably be to airblast her across the room if you had time to think about it.

“Charlie, what the f-”

“Ten minutes!” she blurts at you.

“What?” You look at her, still unsure what is happening here.

“Ten minutes!” she gestures again at her watch. “I was able to shift and hold it for over ten minutes this time.”

Her words come in a rush as she paces back and forth. “I mean, I thought maybe it was possible. Old Jonno tried his best but he couldn’t totally keep my powers from working, ya know?”

You're starting to catch on now. “Wait, are you saying you can shapeshift again? I thought that John’s spell was irreversable.”

She shrugs. “I thought so too at first. But the more I pushed it, the further I was able to go. So after I was able to shift enough to fool you…”

“You mean when you pretended to be John and then you two dicks went and totally broke time?” Your voice drips with sarcasm and disapproval, but Charlie remains unfazed.

“Yeah, that’s right, you’ve got it, Z,” she grins at you. “And so I started thinking maybe there was a way. And each time I tried, it felt a little less awful.”

“Wait, does Constantine’s spell actually hurt you?” you ask, concerned. You feel a surge of anger towards the ship’s resident warlock. Nothing about the way he handled the Charlie situation went down well with you. You’re irritated that he locked her into Amaya’s form without thinking. You’re irritated that he made a unilateral decision to take her powers without consulting the team. And now that you don’t totally hate Charlie anymore since she’s decided not to be such a total pain in the ass these days, the thought that he might have caused her physical harm makes you furious.

She looks at you with a strange expression that you can’t quite decipher.

“No, not like that,” she says. “It’s more like…” she waves her hand, trying to find the right words, “… it’s like, there’s an elastic band around this body, and when I shift into a new form, I feel this pulling sensation. The longer I’m away, the stronger the pull is, until it finally snaps me back. And then, poof, I’m back in this body again. Doesn’t hurt though, just makes me a lil bit tired.”

She pauses then, looks you up and down, a sly smile spreading on her face. “It’s nice to know you care, though.”

She moves towards you slowly. This time you can see this kiss coming, but for some inexplicable reason, your hands stay pinned at your side.

 _This is a terrible idea_ , you think. But the kiss is not terrible, it’s soft and sweet and in the back of your mind you’re surprised that brash and reckless Charlie can kiss like this.

_I should stop._

You don’t stop. Your hands finally unstick and come up to rest lightly on her hips. You angle your head so you can kiss her back, and who even are you right now? Apparently you are someone who kisses their friend’s doppelgänger, even though you know there’s so many issues with that. But you can’t think about that right now, because you’re thinking about how soft Charlie’s lips are, how warm she feels pressed against you, how long it’s been since a kiss made you feel like this.

Finally you come to your senses and push her gently away.

There’s an awkward moment where you’re both just staring at each other, flushed and breathing heavily, and then she abruptly steps back. She fidgets, her voice just a bit too bright when she says, “Right then…. So I’m off to practice, see if I can’t get this elastic to stretch just a bit more. 

She turns on her heel and starts to walk out of the room. You call after her.

“Are you going to tell Sara?”

She arches an eyebrow at you quizzically. 

It takes you a second before you realize what she’s getting at. You flush and stammer, “Oh god, no, not about that.” Charlie’s ability to get under your skin in moments like these is just one of the many reasons what just happened is insane. You start again. “I mean, are you going to tell her you can shift again?”

She thinks for a second. “Yeah. Gonna give this team thing a chance, which means giving boss lady a bit of trust here.” She turns again and walks away.

You’re left there, completely confused by what just happened, the kiss still burning on your lips.

————————————— 

This is how it happens the second time.

You’re on a mission in New York in 1943. This time it’s a succubus who has a particular hunger for lotharios who hit on women in bars. Left unchecked, she’ll be leaving a trail of drained bodies in her wake.

True to her word, Charlie has informed Sara of her new shifting abilities. She’s also been practicing as promised, and she’s able to hold her shifted form for almost 30 minutes at a time at this point. Sara has decided it’s time to put Charlie’s rediscovered powers to the test - since none of the boys on the ship match the physical profile that the succubus seems to prefer, Charlie has been assigned to shift into a form that will attract her attention. She mutters something about being relegated to the eye-candy role, but once Sara announces you’re to go with her, Charlie seems to brighten up. She winks and shoots you a finger gun.

You roll your eyes at her. Since the kiss incident a few weeks ago, your encounters have gone back to normal, which is to say there’s exactly _zero_ kissing and a non-zero amount of her pushing your buttons. You haven’t even talked about the kiss, which is just fine with you. You’ve dismissed it as a one-off event, Charlie getting excited in the moment about something and you happening to be in the area when she did. And you have not thought about the kiss, nope, not at all. And you _certainly_ haven’t replayed the sensations in your mind, or imagined that you’ve caught Charlie staring at you or that she’s caught you watching her when you think no one else is looking.

It starts well enough before it goes all sideways. You’re in position, waiting for the succubus to make an appearance. Charlie has shifted into her (his?) new form. This Charlie cuts a sharp figure in his gray checked three-piece suit, with his slender build, wavy dark hair and olive skin. You’re forced to admit that he is, objectively, handsome. He’s getting into character by practicing corny pickup lines on you, and you’re laughing, and then suddenly you’re not, because his hand is on your leg and you’re staring at each others’ lips, and oh god this can’t be happening again.

But it is happening. And this time when Charlie leans in, you meet him halfway. You thought maybe it would feel different, since you’re technically kissing someone new. But despite the fact that the jaw you’re tracing under your thumb has a slight stubble this time and a different shape, and the hand at the back of your head is larger, this all still inexplicably feels familiar. The kiss feels like a natural continuation of what you started a few weeks ago in the lab. And just like before, you’re lost in the moment.

You almost completely blow the mission because neither of you notices that the mark has apparently entered and left the bar with someone else while you’re occupied with Charlie. It’s only when Sara is yelling your earpiece that she’s chasing the succubus down a back alley nearby that you break away from Charlie with a curse. You shake your head at her as she shifts back, and you pull her out of the bar to join the chase.

Luckily, the team recovers and soon the Time Bureau has a sexy new prisoner to house in their jail. Since this was a fairly typical Legends outing, you two are not the only ones who dropped balls this mission (Mick wasn’t paying attention and punched the wrong woman, and Ray accidentally dosed himself with incubus pheromones), so Sara doesn’t really push too hard to find out why exactly you and Charlie failed your part of the assignment. 

You’re still amped up as everyone else heads to bed - the adrenaline should have worn off by now, but somehow you’re more on edge than ever. You’re in the engine room where you’re trying to focus on some long overdue maintenance tasks, when Charlie sidles in, leaning casually against the doorway.

“Hey, Z.”

You’d be lying if you said you weren’t hoping she’d show up.

“Hey.”

This time when you come together it’s with so much force the back of your head bangs against the bulk head. But you barely notice because your hands are running over her body and her tongue is in your mouth, and yeah, ok, you are both really good at this. A small moan escapes you and you can feel her lips curl into a smile against yours.

You can’t help but smile back, because this thing that you thought would be so wrong feels so right. Charlie’s made you crazy since the moment she stepped on the Waverider, but now you realize that she’s been making you crazy in a completely different way the past few weeks. She’s pressing up against you and million little fireworks are going off in your body right now.

Things are teetering on the edge of escalation - shirts are being tugged free at this exact moment - when you’re interrupted by Ray. Luckily, Ray literally whistles while he works, so you hear him coming well before he enters the room.

You frantically try to compose yourself, tucking your shirt back in and trying to straighten your hair. Charlie, of course, seems nonplussed. She even has the nerve to lean in and kiss you one more time, pulling away right as Ray walks in.

“Heya, Ray,” she says, patting Ray on the shoulder as she strides out of the room.

“Hey, Charlie,” he replies cheerily. “What are you doing here? Helping Zari out?”

“You could say that,” she says. “I was, um, just stopping in to debrief Zari -”you shoot your best death stare at her, but she’s unfazed. Ray remains oblivious, thank god, “- but I think we’re done for now.” She gives you a pointed look, “Right, Zari?”

The smirk on her face is somehow both annoying and cute at the same time. You’re not sure if you want to strangle her or kiss her again. So that’s probably a sign right there. “Yeah. Yeah, we’re done, Charlie.”

She winks at you (again with the cocky winking, what even _is_ that?) and strolls away. You’re left there, with just your own racing thoughts and Ray’s friendly chatter to keep you company.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you can’t fight the urge to kiss Charlie, then maybe you should just lean into it. Zari and Charlie get closer, but only after Zari sets some ground rules. Things escalate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again with another installment! Hope you enjoy it. Leave me comments here or tweet at me at @JayneZee_ on Twitter if you liked it (or didn’t like it). I’ve got the next few chapters planned and I think you’re gonna like them.

This is how it becomes a regular occurrence.

This time you’re the one who seeks her out. A few days have passed since your last kiss. You’ve realized that your normal strategy of “ignore the problem, try not to think about it” isn’t really working, because despite your attempts to ignore it, it’s happened three times now. And the more you try not to think about it, the more you find your mind wandering and replaying your various encounters with Charlie.

You figure if not thinking about it isn’t working, you should lean into it. Charlie is a metric ton of problems shoved into an Amaya-sized package, but you’re tired of resisting this pull between the two of you. And frankly, it’s been _forever_ since you had physical interactions of any kind. Since the crew of the Waverider crashed into your life and dragged you off on this adventure, you’ve been running non-stop from mission to mission. And maintaining any semblance of a dating life is hard, given the shallowness of the potential dating pool on the ship.

You find her lounging around the medical bay. She’s reclined on one of the chairs, eyes closed, listening to music on her headphones. You watch her for a moment - she’s silently mouthing the words to the lyrics and her expression is one of pure happiness - and you feel an unexpected surge of affection.

It throws you - you were much more comfortable when the only emotions she invoked in you were annoyance and anger (anger being a particular specialty of yours) - and you almost lose your nerve. In fact, maybe you technically do, since you’ve already turned on your heel to sneak back out. But you’re stopped in your tracks by the sound of her voice.

“Zari? What are you doing here?”

 _Crap_. “Oh, hey, Charlie….” You say brightly, as you turn and plaster what you hope is a casual look on your face. “I was just looking for, um…” you glance around, and grab the first thing that catches your attention. “… this sample. Yeah, wanted to run some tests on it.” _Real smooth, Tomaz_ , you think, mentally facepalming yourself.

“Mmmhmm…” Charlie obviously doesn’t buy it for a second. She slides off the chair and comes over to where you’re standing. She takes the test tube gently from your hand and sets it down along with her headphones. She’s so close now that your breath catches.

“Can’t resist me, eh?” she smirks.

This response is just so… _Charlie_ that it breaks the spell momentarily. “Me?” you say indignantly. “Don’t flatter yourself. You’re the one who keeps kissing me, you know, not the other way around.”

“What can I say?” she replies. She steps even closer, runs her hands lightly down your arms. “I can’t resist you either.”

Annnnd… there’s the _other_ Charlie, the strangely charming one that has you all twisted around. Your traitorous body reacts instantly - goosebumps break out on your arms, you feel your face flush, and your eyes flutter shut for a second. It would be so easy to give in right now, but you came here for a reason. You place a hand on her shoulder, move her back to a safer distance, and start again.

“If this…“ you gesture at the two of you, “… this thing is going to happen again, we need to have some ground rules.”

She arches an eyebrow at you and looks amused. “Okay.”

“What happened on that mission can’t happen again. I’m not about to break time again because we can’t control our hormones.”

She nods quickly. “Okay.”

“This is a small ship. And if everyone knows, they’re going to make a big thing out of it, and I don’t want to deal with it.”

Again, she answers almost before you’re done talking, “Okay.”

“Because you just _know_ Ray’s gonna want to talk about it, and Mick will probably be gross about it, and Sara will try and be all Mom about it, and oh my god I don’t even want to think about Nate. We need to be careful.”

You’re rambling now, but you press on. “But if you’re not into this, you have to tell me, because I don’t want things to get, like, weird between us. Or if it becomes too much of a distraction, or I’m not in the mood or you’re not in the mood, we don’t have to… if it’s just not working, we stop, right?”

“Okay.” She pauses and waits until she’s apparently satisfied that you’re done before she ticks off your points on her fingers. “No mid-mission snogging, no telling the rest of the Legends, no being weird. And no strings attached. Got it.”

There’s another pause, as she regards you for a moment. “So now can I kiss you?” she asks, sliding one hand softly around your waist and pulling you closer.

And yes, yes, you would like that very much. You nod and she presses her lips to yours. This isn’t like the last time, where you crashed together with frantic need. Instead, it’s tender and slow, like it’s the first time she’s ever kissed you. After a moment she leans back to look at you carefully.

“Still okay? No weirdness yet?” she asks. Her voice is casual, but all of a sudden you notice how delicately she’s holding you right now, and it becomes instantly obvious how careful she’s being not to push you into something you don’t want. It’s sweet, but you also want her to know that she doesn’t have to hold back with you.

You tilt her jaw up with your finger and kiss her firmly. You feel her hands tighten around the fabric of your shirt in response. Her mouth opens willingly to you and she makes this sound that makes you weak in the knees. Finally you break away, breathless.

“No weirdness,” you say, softly. Though that’s not exactly true, because this is weird as hell on some level, but maybe it’s a good kind of weird? And now that you’ve committed to this course, so you aren’t about to pull back. “Gideon?” you say, calling out to the ship’s AI, “Discretion mode.”

She responds immediately. “Yes, Ms. Tomaz. My lips are sealed…” the lock of the medbay door clunks shut, “…as is the door.”

Charlie laughs in surprised delight. “When did you two cook up that little trick, eh?”

You shrug. “After I accidentally walked in on Ava and Sara a few weeks ago - and by the way, she has the biggest bedroom on the ship, so what they were even doing in the cargo bay, don’t ask me - and then Mick and Garima in the kitchen….”

“Aw, come on, we _eat_ in there…”

“Yeaaaaah. For my own sanity I thought maybe we’d all benefit from something like that command.”

“So prepared,” she murmurs, as she moves forward and pushes you against the now locked door.

You have almost ten glorious uninterrupted minutes of kissing to enjoy, before you hear Sara’s voice over the ship’s intercom summoning everyone to the bridge for a mission. Charlie sighs, kisses you quickly one more time, then releases you.

“Assuming this mission doesn’t end with us dying or the world ending - ” she starts.

“That’s a big assumption.”

“- do you want to hang out later?” she asks.

You shake your head yes and a huge smile blooms on her face in response. You know you’re going to be late, but you can’t resist kissing her again, before you head off to see what new magical creature of the week you’ll have to deal with.

—————————————————

The next two weeks are unusually busy on the Waverider, so you don’t have a ton of down time. But you make the most of what little you can carve out. Turns out that when you stop trying to resist this thing with Charlie, it can actually be a lot of fun.

It’s like you’re teenagers again, grabbing any chance you can to steal a few minutes alone together.If the situation demands speed, you work with a sense of urgency. Sometimes you can grab half an hour in between a meal and the next mission starting. Other times it’s a quick makeout session in the library or lab when you know the rest of the crew is occupied.You’ll even settle just for a stolen kiss in a doorway on the way to the briefing room. But if you have time, you both seem content to take it slow (if you _were_ actually a teenager, you might have classified your progress as well past second base and heading towards third).

It’s creating this almost unbearably sweet tension. On one hand it’s kind of nice, getting to explore at this pace, where you notice the small details like how Charlie’s breath hitches when you kiss a certain spot on her neck, or how soft her lips are, or the way her fingertips on your bare skin sends tingles down your whole body.

On the other hand, you’re not a teenager, you’re a grown-ass woman and therefore you have grown-ass woman needs. And while being interrupted constantly is funny on some level, it’s also getting super annoying because you feel like you might explode soon if something doesn’t give.

Finally though, you get a break. You’re wrapping up in 1186 AD in the Flanders region of Belgium, where you’ve apprehended a particularly malevolent and murderous Kludde (a vaguely werewolf-like creature that has the added terrible bonus of being able to fly) who’s been terrorizing a small village.

A time portal opens up, and Ava Sharpe steps through, accompanied by some random agent.

“Great, the Bureau’s here. Hooray,” Mick deadpans.

Ava comes over to where you and the other Legends are standing. She flashes a smile at Sara before straightening up and going back to the prim and proper bureaucrat you all know and try very hard to love (or at least like) for Sara’s sake.

“Nice job, Legends,” she says briskly. And that actually does make you feel good, because Ava has certainly let you all know when you haven’t done a good job in the past. “I’ve got the clean up crew coming in now to finish mind-wiping the locals and fixing up the scene, but I think we better get the Kludde into the Bureau holding facility as soon as possible before it wakes up again.”

“I’ll come with you,” Sara says as Ava opens another portal. “You know, make sure everything goes smoothly.”

She winks at Ava and you’re certain from the look on her face that they’ll be rushing home right after they finish their errand. The recent mission tempo has stymied other people’s attempts at romance lately too, not just your own, and you know Sara hasn’t been able to get away to spend even one night over at Ava’s recently.

Ava can’t hide her own dumb grin and nods. They’re both so obviously smitten - it’s hilarious that they think they’re fooling anyone, but it’s also adorable, and part of the reason you kinda actually do like Ava. You’re happy that Sara is happy, and a happy captain makes for a happy ship, so it’s a win for all of you, really.

“Can I come too?” Ray interjects. “I wanted to visit with Nora. I mean… if that’s okay.” Ava nods her approval, and Ray beams with excitement.

“I’m in too,” Mick grunts. Everyone looks at him in surprise - the Bureau isn’t exactly his favorite organization and just being around men in suits seems to make him antsy. “What?” he says defensively. “Ava said I could use the book. You know, spend a little time with Garima.”

Now it’s everyone’s turn to look at Ava in surprise. “You can use the book but only in the Bureau,” she reminds him carefully. “We’ve got a room set aside for your… enjoyment, but you can’t take the book with you when you leave. Please please don’t make me regret this.” He grunts again in agreement.

Now Constantine chimes in. “Well, if you lot are all going, I might as well too. Promised old Gary I’d be in for Dungeons and Dragons tonight.” He holds his hands up as Ava starts to open her mouth to reply. “Yeah yeah yeah, I know, Sharpie - if you hurt him, blah blah blah, never find the body yeah. You gave me the shovel speech last time. I’ll have you know that Gary and I talked and we’re just friends and fellow D&D enthusiasts these days.”

You can tell from Ava’s face that she’s skeptical, but she waves him towards the portal dismissively.

“Hold on there, gang. You can’t all go. Someone has to take the shuttle back to the Waverider,” Sara points out.

“Z and I will do it,” Charlie chimes in instantly.

Sara’s eyebrows raise and she looks at you with concern. You realize that she’s probably thinking back to a month ago when you groused at length at her about how much you hated being stuck babysitting Charlie and John and the other B Team members. Of course, now all you’re thinking about is you and Charlie on an empty Waverider. It takes every fibre of your being to keep your face neutral, instead of smiling like an idiot. You carefully keep your eyes focused on Sara and shrug in a way that you hope is nonchalant, “Yeah, sure, why not?”

She’s surprised, but lets it pass without comment. “Okay then. Zari and Charlie will take the shuttle back to the Waverider, the rest of you, through the portal.” She turns to you just as she’s about to step through the portal. “Thanks, Z, I owe you one.”

“Mmmhmm, have fun,” you wave. The minute the portal shuts, you head right over to the shuttle, Charlie following quickly behind you.

The door is barely shut and she’s already on you, pulling you into a searing kiss that makes you forget where you are for a minute. She pushes your jacket off you, letting it fall to the floor as she turns her attention to kissing her way down your neck. You’re trying (and failing) not to moan too loudly at the sensation.

Your brain is barely functioning at this point, but somehow you find the strength to push her away. “Hold on, hold on,” you mumble. “Lemme just… yeah….” You move to the front of the shuttle and rapidly type in the commands to takeoff. You set the course back to the Waverider, say a silent prayer of thanks to whoever built autopilot into this thing, and turn back around.

By now, Charlie’s moved to the back of the shuttle and is seated on the bench there. She has this way of lounging around that makes her look cocky, but also undeniably sexy. She raises her eyebrows suggestively at you and gestures you closer with one finger. She watches you with a hungry look on her face as you obey and walk back towards her. When you get there, she pulls you down so you end up straddling her. You loop your arms around her neck and kiss her fiercely.

Her hands are busy tugging your shirt free of your pants, and the sensation of her fingertips lightly skimming the exposed skin underneath makes you feel like you’re about to combust.

“What are we going to do now that we've gotthe Waverider all alone to ourselves, mmm?” she murmurs seductively in between kisses.

You lean back slightly and look into her eyes. “I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” you say deliberately. “You’re going to take me back to your room, we are going to take all of our clothes off, and for once we’re not going to be interrupted.”

Her eyes widen in surprise at your brazenness. There’s also a spark of excitement there though, and also something else... maybe nervousness?

“Are you sure?” she asks carefully, watching your reaction.

“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life,” you confirm, and finally her face relaxes into an expression of such happiness that your heart beats harder in your chest then it ever has before.

The next fifteen minutes waiting for the shuttle to get back to the ship are the sweetest, but also most tortuous minutes of your life. For a moment you think maybe you won’t make it, that you’ll just defile the back of the shuttle right here and now, but finally you feel the shuttle settle down with a thunk onto the bay of the Waverider. You’re both laughing as you scamper down the halls of the ship towards her room. You’re half naked and trying to hold onto your clothes with one hand, as Charlie drags you along by your other hand.

When you get into her room, the clothes get carelessly tossed aside somewhere. True to your word, the rest of what you’re wearing quickly joins them. When your bodies finally come together with nothing left between you, the sensation is incredible, better than you imagined it might be.

Charlie is a surprisingly attentive partner - she checks in constantly with you as she works her way down your body, and she quickly figures out what works for you and what doesn’t. She’s also incredibly vocal, so you get lots of feedback about what she likes and wants more of as you return the favor.

The sex is playful, so the misfires lead to some giggling fits from both of you, and it puts you totally at ease in a way you almost never feel with other partners. You’re snickering one minute and then gasping in pleasure the next, and it’s a heady mix of sensations and feelings that surprises and delights you.

Now, this isn’t some silly romance novel where you have the perfect first time with simultaneous world shattering orgasms, because that isn’t how these things work. But when you do come, it’s still pretty great, and then when you feel her tense and cry out under your hands all you can think about is how beautiful she looks in that moment. So maybe it’s not perfect, but it’s imperfect in all the best ways.

It’s perfectly imperfect. And it’s something you’ll play out in your mind again and again, long after you’ve slipped out back to your own room.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zari explores some of the benefits of sleeping with a shapeshifter. Charlie and Zari discover that it’s harder to keep No Strings Attached working than they thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took so long to post! I’ve had crazy writers block trying to get this chapter done right. I hope you enjoy another installment of Zarlie goodness.

This is how things escalate.

You’ve been sleeping with Charlie for weeks now. Well, technically “sleeping with” might not be very accurate - there hasn’t been a lot of sleeping involved. In fact, sleeping is decidedly a solo activity for both of you. Not that you and Charlie ever talk about it - it’s just a unspoken agreement that one of you retreats back to your own room each evening. You’ve decided not to think too hard about what that means, because it just confuses you when you try to decide if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

So, no sleepovers, but you are definitely having sex with Charlie on a regular basis. And that part is not confusing at all, because it is most definitely a very _very_ good thing. You expected that this new arrangement might have made things more awkward, but instead it’s been shockingly easy to fall into a routine. Things are better between you than they’ve ever been.

When you’re around the rest of the crew, you bicker harmlessly. She pokes fun at you and you roll your eyes and grouse about the mess she’s made in the kitchen (or in the library, or basically any room she’s been in, since clearly centuries of life experience have given Charlie exactly zero cleaning skills). Sometimes you get mad when she goes off script during a mission, or she’ll get mad at you for trying to boss her around. So, you know - almost exactly like it was before.

Except now when you’re alone you can work out the tension of whatever happened that day through the tried-and-true method of tearing each other’s clothes off and fucking each other senseless.

You have to confess, when you’re both naked you find it impossible to think about why you’re mad at her, or she’s mad at you. The only thing that matters is the body in front of you, really. You like the way she kisses, the way she tastes, the way she moves under you (or on top of you, or even to the side of you, because Charlie is endlessly inventive in the bedroom and you’re losing track of the positions she pulls you into). She presses against you and your brain apparently surrenders all control to your groin, because you can’t for the life of you remember why you were arguing, you just know you need to get her into bed _right now_.

Of course, Charlie is still a nonstop chaos machine, and you’re constantly caught by surprise at her whims and impulses. But you’re starting to realize most of the time they’re fairly benign - like the day she decides for no reason that it’s _very important_ that you understand and recognize how a biscuit is most definitely NOT a cookie and it is most definitely NOT a cracker, it is its _own thing_ and it is delicious.

This goes on for half a day, with her leaving taste test samples around the kitchen, and you studiously ignoring them in favor of replicating frosted donuts with sprinkles instead. This has the intended outcome of making her irritated with you, which you find amusing to no end, but eventually Sara tells you to just eat the damn biscuit because watching Charlie pout is making HER irritated at you. You give in, and are forced to admit that, despite the horrible naming, a McVitie’s digestive is in fact very tasty.

Or there’s the time you come into the break room another day to find Charlie lounging around and flipping through a magazine. “Oi, this bloke’s a handsome one, eh, Z?” She points to a cologne ad featuring a swarthy dark haired model. You shrug and agree. At the time you pass it off as Charlie just making random small talk. But then she shows up at your door wearing that same face. Instead of smoldering silently like in the ad, he’s grinning and waggling his eyebrows at you.

You’re momentarily caught off guard, but there’s this twinkle in his eye and you somehow feel that it’s the same Charlie on the inside that you’ve known for months now, regardless of what she (or he, in this case) looks like on the outside. So you roll with it, let him into your room where he sweeps you up in his arms and kisses you. You tug his shirt off, running your hands down his rock hard pecs and abs, admiring the craftsmanship Charlie showed in making this body. But then your hand slides lower and -

“Oh,” you say in surprise.

He glances down and smiles slightly. ”Don’t you know that one of the perks of shagging a shapeshifter is that whatever form I take, all the bits and bobs work?” he tells you. He pauses, looks at you cautiously. “Of course, only if you want to,” he assures you, holding his hands out, leaving you plenty of room to back away. “I can always shift back.”

You barely hear him, though, because you’re already busy tugging his belt off. He laughs, lets you pull him to the bed, though you notice he’s careful to let you lead this time, set the limits. You’re more than happy to oblige.

And just like that, your sex life takes another interesting twist with Charlie. It’s like a game trying to guess which body she’s going to take next in her elaborate game of seduction with you. It’s like you’re in a polyamorous relationship with just one person, but somehow it works.

There’s that time in 1960s London where the two of you stumble upon a real police box, bright blue standing there in the sun. You’ve loosened the “no kissing on missions” rule slightly these days, so once you’re certain the team doesn’t need your assistance, Charlie drags you into it. You spend the next half hour getting slowly ravaged by Doctors Nine through Thirteen. You particularly enjoy Eleven and Thirteen and spend the most time with those two, since you might be a completist, but you’re also not blind.

There’s that other time that you come back to your room to find that she’s decided tonight she’s going to be Bettie Page. She’s also helpfully replicated an outfit and props for you too, which she buckles and straps onto you with no small amount of glee.

Not that she’s in a different body all the time - in fact Charlie usually shifts to her default form to properly enjoy herself, since it’s too hard to maintain a different form and still concentrate on her own enjoyment.At some point during that session, she shifts back and it’s Amaya ( _Charlie_ , you remind yourself sternly) writhing on top of you instead of Bettie.

You don’t mind - you might’ve favored men overall in the past, but you’re not totally inexperienced when it comes to women, and you certainly weren’t lying when you said that her default form (or her “rubber band body” as she calls it) was super hot. In fact, on some level you might even be starting to prefer it. So while you occasionally enjoy dropping a magazine in front of her and pointing at a picture of the person you’d like to have in your bed, most of the time you like her just the way she is.

Aside from your regular sexcapades on the down-low, life on the Waverider is back to normal. Which is to say, you’re still a band of weirdos and outcasts hurling through space and time, trying to keep the present day continuity stitched together. Plenty of your downtime is spent on your regular routine: daily chores, movie night with the rest of the crew, endlessly tinkering trying to upgrade Gideon, and most importantly, keeping on with your research about time loopholes.

Then one day everything changes.

 

—————————————————————

 

Looking back, you blame the leprechaun.

He gets his hands on the Waverider shuttle (and this is _exactly_ why you don’t leave the keys to the shuttle laying around, RAY) and has you on a wild goose chase across time. So it’s his fault you’re dragged to 2042, where you’re forced to enlist the help of not one, but **_two_** , of your exes who you used to run with in the hacker underground, and then to Salvation, 1871, where you run into Jonah Hex again.

Being back in 2042 just a few months after you’ve officially disappeared from this timeline is bad enough - you hate looking around seeing all the A.R.G.U.S. propaganda plastered on walls and the sides of vehicles. Being forced to deal with Javad is another type of annoyance - he’s as arrogant and handsome as ever, and you’re reminded of all the nights you gave in because you were bored and he was charming. Lucky for him, he’s the best hacker you know, and you are willing to endure his incessant come-ons to get his help (you do, however, enjoy the look of disbelief on his face when you completely reject him).

Mehruz is just as interested in rekindling your old romance, it seems, though he goes about it differently. Where Javad is all bluster and charm, Mehruz is silent and smoldering. He looks at you through those impossibly long dark lashes, waits until there’s a quiet moment before he discreetly pulls you aside and asks if you want to join him in his room for a bit.

You see Charlie glance your way with curiosity before she quickly looks away. You’re sure she’s not bothered ( _why would she be?_ you think) but even if she were, there’s no need. There was a time when you couldn’t resist him, when he could make you weak in the knees with the slightest touch. But somehow that’s changed and now you feel exactly nothing when he rests his hand on the small of your back.

You guess you’ve already got one casual hookup to deal with in your life, so you don’t really need another, right? _Right_ , you decide firmly, and besides there’s still the matter of the leprechaun to catch. So you demur, politely remove his hand, and rejoin the group.

It’s almost a relief when the leprechaun takes off with the shuttle - being back in 2042 is bringing up a lot of memories, especially of your family, that you’d rather not deal with. You don’t bother saying goodbye to your old crew when Sara announces you all need to get back to the Waverider.

You follow him next to Salvation, North Dakota in 1871, where the Legends enlist their old ally Jonah Hex to help out. You haven’t forgotten the last time you were here, when you found him charming and he flirted awkwardly with you and gave you his grungy hat as a keepsake.

Jonah’s happy to see you all, and it’s quickly apparent that his flirting technique hasn’t gotten any less awkward. Sara teases you about it once he’s out of hearing distance.

You groan, “I can’t believe I thought he was hot. He’s not even my type.”

Charlie’s been quiet all day (at least, you think she’s been quiet - you’ve barely seen her since you’ve been off with Sara and Mick most of the day) but now all of a sudden she’s right behind you at the bar and chiming in. “Oh? What _is_ your type?” she asks, and it sounds innocent enough, but there’s a challenge flickering in her eyes.

“Apparently cocky and annoying,” you reply pointedly.

Sara smirks. “Well, once we have the shuttle back, feel free to jump back to 2042.” She waits a moment, rolls her eyes when your blank look tells her you have no idea what she’s talking about, and then clarifies, “Hello, because Javad is cocky and super hot and clearly still into you?” She grins and winks, “Or you could still always save a horse and ride a certain scar-faced cowboy.”

“Oh yeah, Z,” Charlie says, clapping one hand on your shoulder, “it could be fun, eh? You know, go for a ride down memory lane with someone who really gets you, right?” She’s got a smile plastered on her face, but you can’t shake the feeling that somehow she’s not as amused as she seems.

“See? Charlie gets it,” Sara points at Charlie, oblivious.

“Oh yeah,” Charlie replies, tipping her beer to you in salute.

You roll your eyes at both of them and storm off to go talk to Ray, who will at least have the decency to focus on his own weird love life instead of yours. For once, you’ll happily listen to him prattle on about Nora Darhk and how luxurious her hair is and how they really _connect_ on a deeper level.

Eventually Sara gets a semblance of a plan in place. Jonah rallies a posse and after a few false starts, a day later you finally successfully catch up with Simon the leprechaun, who has some shockingly colorful curses to express how he feels about you all as he’s dragged off to the Bureau through a portal.

Everyone else has gone back to the Waverider, but you stick around to help Sara finish up and to say goodbye to Jonah. He asks if you’d like to stick around Salvation for a day more now that the leprechaun situation is resolved. You’re flattered, but decline his offer of courting. Literally, he uses that word with you and you’re slightly baffled that you’re NOT interested in him, because that’s the sweetest thing you’ve heard in awhile.

But then you get back to the ship and it all makes sense.

Because Charlie’s waiting for you when you get back to your room, and you didn’t even really know you were hoping to see her until this moment, when your heart leaps a little seeing her perched there on your bed.

“You’re here,” you say dumbly. You’re aware you’re grinning like an idiot and you don’t care because she’s grinning back and she’s already up off the bed and moving across the room to you. You meet her halfway, and part of you marvels at how easy it is to just slide into her arms.

“Hey.” She might sound cool and casual right now, but your hand is resting lightly on her chest and you can feel her heart beating just as fast as yours is.

She leans back for a minute to take your outfit in. She’s changed back to her normal clothes, but you’re still in your cowboy wear from before. You’re about to apologize for not having time to clean up, but you’re stopped short by the hungry expression on her face. She runs her hands down along your suspenders, letting them slide between her fingers. Your eyes actually flutter shut for a moment and you bite back a whimper as the back of her knuckles graze your breasts in the process. She grins, uses the suspenders to pull you closer.

“I’ve been thinking about you all day, you know,” she murmurs. “You look so good in this outfit.”

“I’ve been thinking about you too,” you confess in between gasps as she nuzzles and lightly kisses her way down your neck. She pauses when you say that.

“Are you sure?” She looks at you again and it catches you off-guard how vulnerable her expression is. She hesitates, bites her lip. “Because it’s okay if you think of other people, you know, or if you want to see them… Or if you want me to shift into something different?”

You realize what she’s talking about, what she must have been thinking seeing you with your exes and with Jonah. You shake your head, try to find the words to tell her why you’re here with her instead of with them.

“I want you,” you finally tell her, but no, that’s not right. You try again.

“I _need_ you. Just you. Please,” you say, more forcefully this time, hoping that she understands. And suddenly, you realize it’s true - you haven’t been thinking about Jonah Hex or Javad or Mehruz at all. You’ve been thinking about Charlie, about tracing your thumb down her perfect jawline, about how badly you want to kiss her, like, all the time now.

She blinks, nods, finally ( _finally!_ ) leans forward to capture your mouth in a blazing kiss. You’re not sure what’s come over you, but you feel desperate to touch her and to have her touch you. Your hands shake as you rush to get your shirt unbuttoned, until she takes over, pulling both your clothes off as fast as she can.

She pushes you to the bed and slides next to you as you lay down. You’re pulsing with anticipation, but she’s setting the pace and takes her time. After a few torturously deep kisses that leave you aching in your core, she pauses to gaze at your naked form. She runs her hand slowly down your body, like she’s trying to memorize every curve and flat of your body. Your skin burns under her fingers.

“Zari…” she whispers as she looks at you with reverance, “…you’re so beautiful, do you know that?”

“Charlie, I… I….” you start to say, but you’re lost for words. You’ve never felt as exposed than as you do in this moment. But she looks just as defenseless, and there’s an emotion on her face that you’re not used to that mirrors the song pulsing in your heart right now. So you say nothing and kiss her and pull her on top of you instead.

It’s like a switch has been flipped, and everything is so intense in a way that it hasn’t been before. This time every single detail is perfect, and the way you move together feels so right it’s effortless. You’re not in control, but it doesn’t matter because somehow you’re perfectly in sync and she knows what you want without even having to ask.

You’re grateful that the walls of the Waverider are soundproof because neither of you can really keep the volume down at this point. She’s gasping your name, telling you over and over how good you make her feel, how beautiful you are. You’re less eloquent, able only to utter “Oh god” and “fuck” in between moans of pleasure. You’re all raw need by this point, all you can see is Charlie. You feel like you can’t get enough of her.

Finally when you think you can barely stand anymore, a strangled cry escapes your lips and you climax so hard you see stars. When she shudders against you a few seconds later with her own release, you’re hit by a second unexpected wave of pleasure that catches you completely off guard. She buries her face in the crook of your neck as she collapses on top of you, which you’re glad for because it means she doesn’t see a few tears run down your face as you lay there feeling completely undone.

As you lay there with your arms wrapped around her, you realize that you’ve never felt this way with anyone else before. You’re suddenly hit with a wave of panic at what that means. Because you’ve spent enough time on the Waverider to know that there are these markers, these moments in the timeline where things change in ways that are permanent. You can’t go back from these moments.

This is one of them.

No strings attached worked for Javad and Mehruz, it might have even worked for Jonah, but it’s not working now, not when she makes you feel like this.

You look up into her eyes, and she's wearing the same shellshocked expression you are, because she knows, just like you know, something has shifted. An awkward silence passes between you, and you feel like something (you’re not sure what) is slipping away from you in this moment. Finally she shakes her head, like she’s just woken up from a dream.

“I… I should probably go,” she whispers.

You don't want her to go.

“Yeah. You probably should,” you hear yourself answer.

Some part of you is screaming in frustration right now, but you push it down. You can't even make eye contact with her as she slides out of bed and pulls her clothes on. Not that it matters, because she's avoiding looking at you too. You hear her cross the room to the door, where she hesitates.

Maybe if you could look at her, you’d find the strength to ask her to stay even though you’re terrified. Maybe if she turned back around and looked at you, you wouldn’t have to say anything because she’d just know.

But you don’t, and she doesn’t, and the door slides shut behind her when she goes.

You slump back on the bed, before you roll over and scream a curse into your pillow. Everything that just happened between you was perfect. And now you’re scared that it might have ruined everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angst ahoy! Leave me comments, dammit, I want to know what you all think about this chapter. I promise to reply to every one of you.


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